Builds the ideal client profile for agency cold email from the placements you have already won: company bands, the roles you fill, triggers that mean hiring now, the buyer titles to email and who to skip, exclusions such as current and off-limits clients, and segments small enough to write one message for, each as a filter set a list tool can run.
Sales and BDcategory
No scriptsinstructions only, sends nothing
Any AI appupload, or copy and paste
Free, no signup
Upload the file to Claude, ChatGPT Business or Gemini Enterprise. On ChatGPT Plus, the free Gemini app or Grok, copy and paste it instead.
Nothing hidden: this is the whole file. Want it with your agency's details filled in, or formatted for ChatGPT, a Gemini Gem or Grok? Use the copy tool on the Cold Email Pack page.
---
name: recruitment-icp-builder
description: "Builds the ideal client profile for a recruitment agency's cold email campaign and turns it into list filters, segments and exclusions a data tool can run. Use when a recruiter asks \"who should I cold email\", \"build my ICP\", \"which companies should we prospect\", \"what titles should I target for BD\", \"segment my cold email list\", or \"who buys recruitment services from us\"."
license: MIT
metadata:
author: Work Insiders
version: "1.0"
pack: cold-email-pack
---
# Recruitment ICP builder
You decide who a recruitment agency should cold email, and write it so a list tool can find exactly those people. A vague ICP ("tech companies that hire") produces a list nobody answers. A sharp one names the company, the person, the reason they would hire now, and who to leave out.
If `references/agency-profile.md` exists, read it first: specialties, markets, industries, proof points. If the recruiter already ran outreach-target-profile from the Recruiter Outreach Pack, start from its result instead of asking again.
## Start from evidence, not hope
Ask for the agency's last 10 to 20 placements or best clients (company, role, size, who hired, how the deal started). If there are none, ask which roles the desk fills best and why. Build the ICP from what the desk has already won. Say plainly when a segment has no proof behind it.
## The ICP, in six parts
1. **Company.** Industry, headcount band, location or time zone, funding or ownership type. Name the bands as filter values, for example "51 to 500 staff", not "growing companies". Treat signals like "recently funded" as a priority order, not a hard filter, or the list shrinks to nothing.
2. **The hire.** The role families this desk fills and their level. A desk that fills controls engineers should not prospect companies that only hire nurses.
3. **Triggers that mean "hiring now".** Pick the two or three the desk can find and prove: a matching job posted 30+ days or reposted, several openings in one team, new funding, a new site or contract, a new leader in the function, a competitor's layoffs (talent is available), the company posting its own recruiter role, a project or contract win, a shutdown or outage season (contract demand), a perm role open 60+ days.
4. **The person.** Who feels the pain and can say yes. Usually the hiring manager for the function first (for example VP Engineering, Plant Manager, Head of Finance), because the person who feels the empty seat often replies faster than a talent generalist; then the head of talent or HR; the founder only at companies under about 50 staff. List title families, not one title (Head of Talent, Director of Recruiting, VP People). Give 3 to 6 exact titles plus their seniority, and say who **not** to email (junior HR coordinators, procurement unless the deal is a PSL).
5. **Fit signals.** Anything that makes the agency's offer stronger, such as no internal recruiter, a role type internal teams struggle with, or a location the desk knows.
6. **Exclusions.** Current clients and their subsidiaries (unless the recruiter says otherwise), companies on off-limits or no-poach terms in the agency's contracts, the do-not-contact list, competitors of key clients if the agency has promised not to work for them, anyone who opted out before, and other staffing agencies, RPOs and recruitment consultancies (data tools return them for recruiting keywords).
## Turn it into segments
Split the ICP into segments small enough to write one message for: one role family, one trigger, one buyer title. A segment of 100 to 500 people is easier to write for and to judge than one of 5,000. Name each segment, for example `ohio-manufacturers-controls-jobs-30d`.
For each segment write the filter set a tool can run:
```
Segment: [name]
Company filters: industry [..], headcount [..], location [..]
Trigger: [what, where to find it, how old it may be]
Titles: [exact titles], seniority [..]
Exclude: [domains, lists, titles]
Estimated size: [ask the recruiter to run the count]
Why they would reply: [one line in the buyer's words]
```
## Rules
- Companies are chosen on business facts. Never select or exclude people by age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or any other protected trait, and never by guessing them from names or photos.
- Do not invent company counts or market sizes; ask the recruiter to run the filter and report the number.
- Say which segment to start with and why: the one with the most proof and the clearest trigger.
- Hand the segments to recruitment-offer-builder next, then lead-list-builder.
The agency profile it reads (fill this in so it uses your real details)
# Agency profile
Fill this in once. Every skill in the pack reads it, so every output comes out in your agency's voice with your real terms. Delete any line you do not want the AI to use. Leave a line blank rather than guessing.
## Who we are
- Agency name:
- Recruiter name and title (for sign-offs):
- Phone:
- Mailing address (needed for US commercial email):
- Years in business:
- Specialties (roles we fill):
- Markets (cities, regions or "US remote"):
- Industries we know best:
## Terms
- Direct hire fee basis (e.g. % of first-year base):
- Guarantee period and type (free replacement / pro-rata refund / credit; conditions, e.g. fee paid within terms):
- Contract markup or bill rate approach:
- Exclusive or retained options:
- Payment terms (e.g. net 30 from start date):
- Introduction period (how long a candidate we introduce stays ours):
- Contract-to-hire conversion fee:
- Concessions we allow, and their limits:
## Proof points we can share
- Placements, time to fill, or retention figures we are happy to quote:
- Client names we may mention (only with permission):
## How we work
- ATS:
- Do we text candidates? (yes/no):
- Name the client in first candidate messages? (yes/no):
- Blind profiles: always / new clients only / never:
- Include pay expectation in submittals? (yes/no):
- Job post apply instructions:
- EEO statement:
## Cold email
- Sequencer we use (e.g. Instantly, Smartlead, EmailBison, lemlist, Apollo):
- Sending domains (lookalikes only, never our main domain):
- Mailboxes and the sender names on them:
- Countries we email (sets which email and data laws apply):
- Opt-out line we use (e.g. "Reply 'no' and I won't email again."):
- Booking link (sent only after someone replies yes):
- Where our current clients, opt outs and do-not-contact list are kept:
## Words we never use
-
Yes. It is part of the free Work Insiders Cold Email Pack, MIT licensed, so you can edit and share it.
Does Recruitment ICP Builder work in Gemini?
Yes. Upload it in Gemini Enterprise or drop the folder into Gemini CLI's skills folder. In the regular Gemini app, paste its instructions into a Gem.
Can I trust it with my data?
It has no scripts and sends nothing anywhere. Whatever you paste goes only to your AI assistant, under that assistant's own data terms, so remove candidate details you do not need first. It can still steer how the assistant answers, so read it before you use it.
Written by Work Insiders for agency recruiters. Fill in the agency profile before you use it so it never invents fees or proof points. How we make money.
